This is mostly for managers, but other people may also from time to time have reason to put in labor requisitions. For semi-permanent assignments, give the labor assigners a requisition and ask them to put it in their permanent assignment book or personal preference card. For example, "Give me 5 hours a week of dairy managerial time DTW every week until further notice." This will result in the job's appearing on labor credit sheets regularly without further attention on the part of the manager.

For one-time or temporary jobs, fill out a labor requisition form and turn it in on Monday or Tuesday morning. State whether you need specific people or just anybody willing. Separate members from visitors. In short, fill in the information the form asks for. Remember that member labor requisitioned comes out of your area's labor budget, and visitor labor does not.

If you are requisitioning a meeting, note carefully whether it is being assigned at full credit (desirable if your budget can afford it) or at partial credit. Requisitions for meetings need to be in on time. It is very difficult for meetings to be scheduled on revisions, because so many people may be involved.

Miscellaneous Odd Parts of the Labor System

PFF Hours: PFF stands for "Products For Friends." The community allows members to earn hammocks or other products to give away or trade by doing products work without taking credit for it. There is a list of products and the number of hours it takes to earn each one kept in the products office by one of the products desk people. That person also handles the transaction when the actual product leaves our inventory. If you want to earn such a product, first earn the credits, then get it shipped (Leave a note for the products desk people, asking them to do the shipping for you. Give them the address where the product is going, of course.)

The hours are recorded on the labor credit sheet when you do them but are not added in to the total credits for the week. Please circle the number of credits, to remind everyone concerned not to count those credits toward quota or vacation balance, and also to be sure they are credited to your PFF balance. Warning: It not okay to do PFF if you are in the labor hole!

Members may turn their positive labor balance into PFF retroactively, but this creates extra clerical work and should not be done lightly. The usual reason for doing this is that the member is leaving and wants to take products with co. The labor manager does the transaction, lowering the labor balance by the amount necessary for the purchase of the products. The labor manager and Products General Manager reserve the right to limit the number of products purchased in this way.

OPP Accounting: OPP stands for Overquota Products for Projects. This system allows members and others to make hammocks and other products without credit, a certain percentage of the profit from the product to go to favorite, member-chosen purchases or expenses for the community or donations to various causes. OPP is handled by the planners in conjunction with the products general manager or GMT. It is a piecework system, and the accounting is done by means of tickets filled out upon work being completed OPP hours are not recorded on the labor credit sheet at all. It is not okay to do OPP units when you are in the labor hole.

New Member Hours

For the first eight weeks of membership, new members are given "new member hours." This means simply that the new member can go around and find work to do by asking managers if they need help. The assumption is that many new members will be interested in some kind of work but won't be yet in a position to get on the some crews or take credits from some budgets. With the freedom of the new member hours, the new member can volunteer to work in areas of cos choice, and the hours do not come out of any budget. After 8 weeks, presumably the new person has a better idea of how to get a satisfactory schedule, and the new member hours are discontinued.

When filling out the done section of the labor credit sheet, do not write "new member hours." This is NOT a category of done labor. Write the name of the area that you actually did work for. Draw a separate column to the right of the overquota column on your labor sheet to indicate which hours (up to a day's quota) are to be credited as new member hours.

Moving-in Days

The community allows new members two free days for moving in, plus whatever is left of the day they arrive. This is handled by lowering your quota in the first week. Mark on your sheet the day you arrived and the words "moving in" on the two following days. (It doesn't matter whether you actually use the time for moving or not.)

If you end up working on those two-and-a-fraction days, do claim the labor. You will get credit for the work, and it will give you a nice start on a vacation balance. If, on the other hand, moving takes you longer than two days, you're on your own time for the rest of it. The community rarely gives labor credits for moving. (If you think yours might be a special case, talk to the Trusterty manager to see if co can allow credit.)

Health Maintenance

Credits for doing prescribed things to maintain personal health are sometimes granted by the health team for such things as doing special exercises. They are taken only with permission of the health team and they are limited to the amount set by the team.

Teaching Anyone may take credit for teaching anything to anyone, as long as the learner wants to learn it. Normal uses for teaching credits include teaching a language, a musical instrument, a recreational skill or academic subject. The situation becomes borderline when one person teaches cos favorite friend to recognize forest flora, and they end up making love among the wild violets. Use your judgment and your conscience about how much of that to take credit for.